English
French
German
These days my newsfeed has a story on “spice” almost daily. Many people think spice is a version of marijuana, but it really isn’t. It is a synthetic drug, made completely in underground laboratories by scientists from China to Mississippi.
It’s a drug that is killing people across the country, sometimes after just one use. The kicker is that it’s easily available at many local convenience stores.
Spice is marketed as “marijuana-like” but this is a misnomer, because it only resembles a cannabinoid and can be 100 times more potent than marijuana. Since it is also sprayed with various hallucinogens (like insecticides!), it causes a much different, more potent high.
ER visits from synthetic drug use have spiked in the past month alone. Bath salts are another version of synthetic drugs that have been linked to erratic behavior, suicides and murders.
Synthetic drugs don’t come from plants, they are copycat molecules that can be revised over and over. What that means is that it’s almost impossible to regulate. In 2012, in response to a rise in deaths from synthetic drugs, we passed the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act, naming dozens of chemicals that are now illegal.
Yet Spice continues to be available at local drugs stores because every time its chemical makeup is made illegal, the underground chemists alter it a little and come up with a newer version. A subtle change in the molecule and VOILA – a legal drug. They even spray rat poison on the product as a finishing touch.
What this also means is that ER doctors have no idea what a person coming in has taken, and how to treat! Calls to state Poison Control centers from ER doctors have spiked, along with deaths from New York to Alabama. It’s often only after toxicology reports come back that we know what substance killed the individual.
Kids are seeing packets of it next to cigarettes in tobacco stores and next to vitamins in local drug stores. It’s way more dangerous than anyone would ever suggest marijuana is, yet it’s impossible to regulate. The ONLY way we can stop these deaths is by controlling the demand.
That means educating our youth about it. A 16 year old who sees it being sold will try it if they haven’t heard what it really does. Educate yourselves and educate your kids! Just because it’s sold at the corner store doesn’t mean it can’t kill you. Don’t just take my word for it; read a few of the tragic stories in this article. Then go talk to your kids.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/inside-alabamas-deadly-spi…/
